Black feathers on a conure

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone would be able to help! My Green Cheek Esme has black feathers down both of her sides and they are getting worse. I have included a picture (hopefully). She seems well enough in herself and eats veggies. I am currently transitioning her across to Harrisons complete from a mixed seed and dried fruit diet. She has a UV light above her but she spends so much time out of the cage I'm not sure if it is helping!

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated. Thanks

The UV thing isn't necessarily accurate.

The seed diet is probably more on target. This tends to be a nutrition issue. Has this bird been seen by an ACV? What did the blood test show?

Thanks for the quick response

We have taken her to the closest thing to an ACV anywhere near where we are (South West, UK) which is a small animal vet with experience and interest in birds. She thought the black feathers might be from stress. Esme had a horrible experience having her nails clipped at the vet (different one to above, we do them now). But she didn't say anything about having a blood test done.

We are moving her over to pellets but it is slow going as she is reluctant to eat just the pellet diet.

Good luck with your baby - It is also stressful for them to switch diet's which will add to it, getting worse before it gets better

Hi Esme, She is a pretty bird. If she is healthy in respect to her eating and activity, hopefully the improved diet will correct things. Keep it up with the pellets. Maybe make some kind of treat out of them (mixture) as well as providing the pellets themselves? Anything to get her to eat them. Have you tried any of the Lafeber's Nutriberries? I give mine one once in a while. There is a decent percentage of pellets in them. They are like a small round ball of pellet treat w/fruit/nuts/seed mixed in. Look on the package for the percentage of pellets in the treat. Some have more pellets than others. Mine LOVES the Tropical Fruit one. Of course feed fresh veges, peppers, some fruits occasionally.
Can she get some true sunlight once in a while? Shade part of the cage so she can get out of it if she wants to. Mine gets a couple of hours of filtered sunlight daily whenever possible.
Good luck, keep us posted

It's not stress, IMO. Stress bars look like this:


With stress bars the black bars cut right across the feathers in a band, and are caused by a traumatic experience which affects the feathers' pigment while they develop.

Your conure has some green pigment in the middle of her feathers and black around the outsides, which indicates overpreening or, more likely, malnutrition.

It's worth mentioning that it can also be a symptom of liver disease (I'll let Frumpydumple chime in, since her Cookie has the same thing). It really is worth finding an A-Vet to do bloodwork to rule that out.

EnglishMuffin said:

It's not stress, IMO. Stress bars look like this:

With stress bars the black bars cut right across the feathers in a band, and are caused by a traumatic experience which affects the feathers' pigment while they develop.

Your conure has some green pigment in the middle of her feathers and black around the outsides, which indicates overpreening or, more likely, malnutrition.

It's worth mentioning that it can also be a symptom of liver disease (I'll let Frumpydumple chime in, since her Cookie has the same thing). It really is worth finding an A-Vet to do bloodwork to rule that out.

Click to expand...

Thank you for correcting me on this matter. I did a little research and EnglishMuffin is right, This is most probably a nutrition problem. If there is a possibility of liver disease get him to the vet pronto! You cant put a price on love

Hey Esme, I went through the same thing with my little JellyBean.. I did three things that people suggested through this forum; took him to a vet, started to change his diet from just seeds and veggies to pellets and a veg chop.. finally, which I think was the most effective, we got a separate sleeping cage - no toys or anything - just water a little food and a blanket in a very quiet part of the house. We now "put him to bed" at 7.30pm and wake him up after 12 hours. His feathers have improved tremendously... I am not saying it is the same thing as Esme, and definitely bring to a vet but for us it was what worked! Good luck and keep us posted!

A vet check is a good idea. My GCC had a lot of black on her feathers similar to this, just not quite as bad. It was from malnutrition on a seed-only diet before we got her. Now seeds are more treats than a staple. She has a well-rounded diet with fresh foods and pellets. She is finishing her first major molt and looking MUCH better. At least I hope she's finishing soon.

Thanks all for your great advice. I will take her down to the vet next weekend when I'm off work just to rule some things out.

She was on the seed only diet when we got her ( about a year ago) and I have since moved her across to tidy mix and Harrison's with the end aim being solely Harrison's. The NutriBerries look lovely! I will try some and see how she gets on with as a little treat. She does get veggies but I will try and vary them a little more and check she's getting enough Vitamin A.

Moving her into a quiet room sounds like a great idea but we are only in a one bedroom flat so I will see what I can do with that. Likewise I will try and take her outside more (if we ever get any sun!)

I will keep you posted with what the vet says thanks again

Bake a sweet potato and cube it. Give him a couple of cubes a day. Check for hot spots when you heat it up. Not too hot or you'll burn his crop.

Throw in some broccoli and carrots.

Add aloe detox to some apple juice and let your bird drink his fill.

Soak some pellets in the aloe detox/apple juice mix, and see if he will eat that.

Do a seed/pellet mix and gradually use less and less seed. (I do 10%)

My first guess would not be liver, it would be malnutrition/vitamin deficiency. Particularly vitamin A.

Thanks so much, I am giving her sweet potato, broccoli and carrots (although she doesn't seem too interested in them) she loves chillies but they're staining her beak! I have ordered the Aloe Vera detox.

I have also cut her seeds down to 10% and now have a VERY stressy birdie who is searching for her seeds and getting annoyed that she can't find them. I guess I'll have to ride the tantrums out and hope she gets used to it, I'm making sure I weigh her every day though in case she's not eating enough.

Thanks again